#fleeting but mutually useful alliances are how wars are won

[austronauts]

my dear siblings in arms last night we gained an unlikely but welcome ally for the mitch marner defense squad

he showed up in a cloud of mist then leapt into hand-in-hand combat vs. the leafs uncles who want to do a variety of things to mitch, ranging from cyberbullying him out of town to "healthy scratch[ing] him for 2 months so he wants to leave" (an actual idea someone thought to post publicly).

without further ado, i present: [cue gladiator soundtrack] Jfresh.

some additional observations:

if u look at the timestamps for these he was fully in the trenches battling from 3pm-1am.

his calm replies make the uncles look even more obtusely deranged than they already are

he may be doing this with the ulterior motive of trying to get mitch on the penguins and honestly....let's fuckin go

[iamnightduchess]

SnK 139 (A personal thought on Reiner & Mikasa's ending)

We have finally reached the end. For those who began this fandom since 2010, it's been 11 years of happiness, tears and heartbreak, on top of character discourse with our respective favorites. This manga is rich with amazing life values that requires more than just a quick zip through of every chapter. It requires a thorough, repeat reading. Hajime Isayama weaved his universe in a way that never cease to blow all of his readers' minds away but still touched our hearts in an emotional way.

(Special thanks to @pethellhounds for the key pointers for this post!)

No doubt, I love all of the characters, each of their flaws, strengths and growth but my two favorites have always been Mikasa and Reiner, individually.

Upon the first two reads, I was saddened, I was devastated and I allowed my emotions to filter the absolute value of the final chapter; in particularly to my most favorites. All thanks to the discourse we had in our RK discord, my brethren offered me a different perspective on how we could truly perceive ch.139 for what it truly is: a bittersweet farewell which only leads to new beginnings.

Reiner Braun

Armin was destined to save humanity, Eren confided on that himself. Even if it was Mikasa's personal choice on ch.123 that is the ultimatum that had saved humanity by eradicating the power of the Titans from the world for good. As referenced on this post, it has been Mikasa that was destined to free Ymir all along through her selflessness.

Upon first read, the following panel seemed to portray the remaining alliance members in a different light. Everyone looked amazing, happy as they exchanged banter just like how old friends with shared traumatizing experiences do. After all they're all celebrated world heroes - living with possibly an upgraded lifestyle, fame and wealth even within those 3 years. But upon several more reads and deeper observation, one could not entirely disregard the rather dark and gloomy atmosphere beyond the bright surface. In particular Jean and Reiner, who seemed to be a bit more noticeable.

Jean somehow is putting on a front as a skirt-chaser (having preference for younger girls) while Reiner seemed to be simping over his old crush (who's already married & has a child in Paradis).

The above panel seemed comical because the actions & lines seemed a bit "out of nowhere", but beyond the surface - everyone's hurting secretly from within, some are masking their pain, though some remained unaffected because they all shared a heavy burden of guilt towards Eren's death & Mikasa's withdrawal from the group to lay their friend in his final resting place all the way in Paradis. Jean and Reiner both are putting on a front.

Do remember that during the Marley arc, not even once was Reiner shown to reminisce about Historia very specifically. Not even in a fleeting thought, thus why it could also be deduced that she did not actually have a huge impact on his memory or his genuine affections beyond just a fleeting crush to hide his tormented mental state from within. How could someone who has been shown to have tremendous emotional growth and a consistent, albeit shaky psychological regulation during his primary arc was reduced to a typical simp archetype in the final chapter? This is not, a "Reiner can finally be his real self who's free of his burdens & he is someone who's enjoying his new life" moment.

The last time he portrayed this "simping" behavior? When he was 17 years old during the 104th's first SC excursion and when his psyche was almost teetering on its edges as his Warrior!alter is wrestling control against his soldier personality in Utgard Castle.

Reiner's simping (which was an intended joke) was also an indicator of a bleak truth: his DID regressed, from his regulated state and his psyche was completely torn apart from that day. In Marley, he had been extremely depressed but he was a loyal, strong and steadfast soldier who had only his duties in mind. To see him do a complete 360 & reverted to a creepy old behaviour, is truly saddening. He's been masking his pain with this front. Even Pieck could be seen sending him a silent, understanding look of concern for his letter-sniffing action.

In 139, despite having a new chance at life, having his mother's genuine love and acceptance & achieved his original dream in becoming a respected hero who is recorded in history, one could not entirely rule out the possibility that Reiner's DID has regressed to the point that either he reverted back to his soldier persona as a facąde or he'd might have developed a new alter altogether after having to experience Survivor's Guilt for the second turn. Yet this time, with no known time limit since the Curse of Ymir had been eradicated. DID is a lifelong condition. It does not go away, it cannot be healed even with modern medicine but yes, could be managed. That letter, the mentioning of Eren's name and their impending arrival on Paradis - the place he felt the happiest of his life - could be his trigger to put on that front. He, (along with the rest of the alliance on that ship) had to live with the fact that his and his family's new life and future had been at the expense of two people's livelihood; Eren & Mikasa. Eren sacrificed his life. Mikasa chose to bury Eren at his final resting place in Shinganshina and remain there to honor his memories on her own, without anyone by her side despite having fought together & almost on the verge of dying together.

(Thank you @lancerofdarkness for pointing this out!) We can see the banter between Reiner and Jean is very reminiscent of Reiner and Bertolt, where the latter cautioned the former on "not getting too carried away". Where Bertolt had a filtered approach, Jean had a more direct, head-on snipe. This dynamic had been initially observed much earlier in this post.

The alliance members could possibly have made a silent pact between them on not mentioning either Eren or Mikasa's name out of respect for that 3 years. Or if they, as well as the others, were not divulged of the real truth by Armin. With or without this knowledge, Eren's death and Mikasa's silent departure from the alliance do affect everyone. Some are more obvious than the others.

Once again, I feel compelled to share an unpopular perception that Reiner's simping is not his true self's behavior. It is a mask. A fake persona. It is a front to hide the real pain from within.

He cared about both Eren and Mikasa respectively, as much as the others do.

Mikasa Ackerman

Upon first reading, I was initially devastated for Mikasa's conclusion. It was her decision and selfless act that had saved all of humanity and won Ymir over, which completely destroys the Paths as well as removing the titan powers together with its curse. The woman who had been at the frontlines, placing her life at stake, almost dying first to protect the men in the alliance; she who had sacrificed everything ended up with nothing but only memories of the one who could never be and loneliness.

To throw salt into the wound, we saw Eren uttering in Paths on how he refused to accept the notion of Mikasa being with another man, he wanted her to only love him and have him in her heart even 10 years after his death. It was indeed a last spur of the moment declaration that ironically contradicted his plea in 138.

Their relationship was never meant to take off by riding into the sunset together, they are not destined to be with each other, even if their feelings are mutual. Despite my personal observation of their relationship as a form of enslavement in itself: Mikasa still sees it as her devotion & commitment to Eren. I have to respect her perspective on this.

Ymir mistaken Stockholm Syndrome as love, she perceives enslavement as love. Being used as a tool of war and breeding, surrendering all her will to her captor, yearning for his validation - she saw those as love. Now the glaring parallel between Ymir and Mikasa are truly obvious. Because of love, Ymir tethered herself to Paths or purgatory for 2,000 years and in exchange of Mikasa's decision & action, Mikasa remained tethered to her love for Eren & his memories for at least another 10 years if not for the rest of her life on earth. That is truly heartbreaking.

I was devastated. I personally believe she deserves better. She too deserves to have her happy end, to be loved and have a family of her own.

When Armin had dreams of seeing the world beyond the walls, Mikasa has always been a simple girl with simple dreams: i) to go back home within that forest in Shinganshina and ii) to be by Eren's side forever. Once we realised this, Mikasa actually had everything she ever desired after all. She's back home in Shinganshina, living in solitude and in peace with no burden of world peace, diplomatic affairs on her shoulder and has no need to put on a facąde. She's been grieving and she still cried for her yearning to see Eren's face again even after 3 years that she might not stop shedding tears in the next 7 years just like Eren wanted. That is how psychologically and emotionally affected she is with Eren's words, actions and death. She chose to remember Eren and keep her in her heart that it is almost seen as an imprisonment but she's also free from other wordly responsibilities unlike the rest of the alliance members.

Did I wish she would have a better ending than this? Absolutely. This young woman has never been on her own ever since she was born, it's heartbreaking to see her having to process her grief alone without even a single companion by her side. She lost all of her incredible physical strength and had to learn how to fortify her emotional strength through her grieving process. She has only learn on how to love and be loved by Eren, which has major missing components left to be desired. Mikasa deserves to be loved, to receive that affection openly in return from someone who would be ideal, respectful, trustworthy, expressive, equally devoted, the raindrop to her seed, the sun to her cold days and loving towards her and maybe one day, eventually would be able to grow a real family from that genuine love.

The last two bottom panel above we can actually observe the innocent kid!Mikasa just like Isayama promised. She is ready and curious to once again, learn more about the beautiful but cruel world. She is ready to leave the forest upon realizing that no matter where she goes, Eren will always be inside her heart.

She is at peace. Even if she looks way thinner, fragile that she should be and could be seen collapsing as she was hit by another wave of strong grief. But since the members of the alliance are coming to Paradis for a potential negotiation, it is been stated by Mikasa that they are also coming to see Eren's final resting place to pay their respects. She will be meeting her friends after 3 years for the first time and I could really hope that they can be the support that each other needed for true healing. I am holding on to the possibility of her being ready to move on and start living again after putting the course of her life on hold by mourning for Eren the moment she is reunited again with Armin, Annie, Reiner, Jean and Connie.

The bird flew over the ship carrying the alliance as it is heading towards Paradis before heading towards Mikasa's location, giving his answer to her "You're happy right?" question by wrapping that scarf around her neck for one last time. He wanted her to be free after 3 years of grief. He wanted her to move on when she meets their friends again because she does not deserve to be consumed in her grief not even another day. Not even for another 7 years. Not even for the rest of her life.

Anything that we envision happening after 139 is valid in this universe. I believe Mikasa will begin living her life to the fullest as the end of the series is also the beginning of her next journey. But this time, she will be doing it in the company of her loved ones. Together.

[yangssunglasses]

logh happy au where no one dies and yang and frederica have a kid together.

AN: This was a lot of fun to write! Thanks for the prompt! I also included Julian/Katerose scene. Let me know if you have more prompts for this AU or other :)

AO3 link 

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The Victory of Peace

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“History teaches us many valuable lessons. Thanksto it we can study the past mistakes and choose better solutions. Thepast determines our future as the species, as the nation, even asindividuals.

“The history of humanity, unfortunately, is ahistory of war. Bloody, countless wars across the ages, but alwaysfollowing the same patterns. The reasons for starting a war arealways the same. People find it easier and more profitable to fightrather than negotiate or trade. They believe there’s something moreimportant than human life, something worth dying for. The wars areended for the opposite reason, when the people decide that there’snothing more precious than the human life.

“You might find this cynical and that is fine. Thehistorian needs to know all the facts first, then draw conclusionsand make interpretations of events. We’re not only interested in whathappened, but why and how and, most importantly: to what end? We needto take the history, good or bad as a lesson for ourselves, becauseeveryday we are the ones making the newest history. I am notreally your teacher, I am just your guide. In here, only history isthe teacher of us all.

“Today, I’d like to talk with all of you about oneof my favourite lessons – the modern miracle that changed the lifeof humanity in this galaxy. The Treaty of Iserlohn that ended over acentury of a bloody, pointless war between the Free Planets Allianceand the Galactic Empire.

“You probably wonder why I called this myfavourite lesson when I spent hours upon hours extolling thegreatness of ancient pre-space civilizations to you. For me, theTreaty of Iserlohn symbolizes hope for humanity. It teaches us that afew good people in the right place at the right time can make achange for the better.

“'Good people’ is of course a relative term here.I doubt anyone here would agree to call the kaiser Friedrich IV agood man, but at the right time his heart was swayed to choosesomething that was in the interest of the galaxy, not just himself orthe Empire. This can’t be denied. Biographers still argue about histrue reason for agreeing to negotiate with rebels, as the Empirecalled us once, but whether it was his mistress’ plea, the losses inhis military or a whim, he still did it. He showed willingness tolisten and for that we should be grateful.

“On the side of the Alliance, the situation wasthe same. Our leaders had just as little obligation as Friedrich tostop the war. Capturing Iserlohn was more than advantageous to them.It finally secured the Alliance territory and even allowed them thepossibility of preparing an invasion. However, while what Friedrichdid is solely on his shoulders as his subjects had no influence overhis decision, in the Alliance we have this thing called democracy.And for once, our people chose their leaders wisely. Let that be alesson every time you’re going to the voting urn…”

The door to the lecture hall burst open and bangedon the wall, allowing a young blond man in. “Professor! It’s time!Miss Frederica’s water broke!”

The renowned professor of the Faculty of History ofthe Heinessen University, Yang Wen-li looked from the young man, hisstudent, neighbour and friend Julian Mintz, to the clock. “It’s tooearly,” he said, stupefied. He could have meant the hour, it wasonly ten past eight a.m. And he only got started with his lecture,but he actually was thinking about the doctor’s prediction. The babywas supposed to be born next week, which is why he’d come to workthis morning instead of staying with his very pregnant wife.

“Hurry, we need to go! She’s on the way to thehospital!” Julian informed him, grabbed the lecture notes spreadbefore Yang before shoving them into his bag and taking it himself.

Yang scratched his head and looked at the huge groupof curious students gathered in the hall. His lectures were quitepopular, even those at the most despised early hours. He was the kindof a professor that got very passionate when talking about hissubject, which drew him a larger audience than he would haveexpected. “Well, this is the end for today. We’ll continue thisnext week. Everyone, have a good day, and goodbye!” he told themand rushed after Julian, almost tripping on the step of the podium.

They called an automatic taxi which took them offthe campus and towards the Heinessen General Hospital.

“Julian, why didn’t you call me?” Yang asked,embarrassed that they had made a scene in front of his students.

“I did, but you didn’t answer! So after I calledfor General Greenhill to take her to the hospital, I ran to get you,”Julian explained.

Julian lived next door to Yang. They had madefriends after an incident with water sprinklers. The young manimpressed Yang with his diligence and they quickly developed afriendship. Julian not only was taking care of his disabled father,he also worked part-time in the local cafe and excelled in hisstudies. And above all, he made the most delicious tea Yang had evertasted.

General Greenhill was Yang’s father-in-law.Actually, Yang’s wife Frederica was also military, however she had adesk job at the Heinessen Joint HQ at the Strategic Data AnalysisCenter. In times of peace, Yang had no reason to worry she’d be sentout to fight somewhere far away from home and for that he waseternally grateful. He himself had almost been recruited intomilitary academy to achieve his dream of studying history, butfortunately he was able to qualify for scholarship. Again, the peacetime had benefited Yang’s life because if the war still raged on,he’d have had no other choice but to become a soldier against his ownwill. He always thought he’d dodged the bullet with this one.

Yang met Frederica through a mutual friend andmeddler extraordinaire, Alex Caselnes. Yang often joked that Caselnesshould have become a professional matchmaker, not the manager of amajor shipping company. Even he probably wouldn’t have such alucrative job if not for the Treaty of Iserlohn which had broken thegalactic trading monopoly of Phezzan. With the Iserlohn Corridoropening for trade between the FPA and the Empire, many new shippingcompanies emerged within both sides of the galaxy and Phezzan lostthe prominence it had gained as the only middleman during thewartime.

The trip to the hospital didn’t take long, but toYang it felt like hours, his leg vibrating with impatience. When thetaxi parked on the other side of the street across the hospital, herushed out and almost got ran over by a car. Julian hurriedly paidwith his digital credit card and went after Yang.

Once they entered the reception safely, they gotdirections to the maternity ward, though Yang was too anxious toremember them, so Julian had to grab his sleeve and lead him to theelevator. Inside, Julian pressed the button for the third floor. Yangwas tapping his foot on the floor again.

“Calm down, Professor,” Julian said. “Everythingwill be fine with Miss Frederica.”

“I know, I know,” Yang sighed and ran a handover his brow. “Women are giving birth to the next generations fromthe very beginning of humankind, it’s a completely natural processthat the evolution prepared us for,” he said, as if reciting from abiology book to reassure himself. “Well, actually, it wasn’t alwaysthe case. Did you hear about the cloning practice in the days beforethe Republic formed? When there were shortages of workers, more werecloned, but due to some legal difficulties the practice was bannedand later the technology was lost…” Yang went off on a tangent.The elevator pinged and opened. Julian didn’t interrupt, letting himramble as they walked through the corridors. Talking about historydistracted Yang from worrying.

“It’s here,” Julian said as they reached thedoor numbered 320. Julian knocked two times.

The door opened to reveal Yang’s father-in-law.“Wen-li! You’re finally here! Come in, it just started,” heinvited them in with a smile. He was the only person on the planetthat called Yang by his first name. Even Frederica preferred terms ofendearment.

Frederica was sitting on a special birthing chair,her face scrunched in intense concentration as the doctor wascoaching her. Yang hesitated for a second, but when Frederica smiledat him, he went straight to her side. “Sorry, I’m late,” he saidwith a contrite look.

She grabbed his hand tightly. “Doesn’t matter, thebaby is coming,” she gritted out and grimaced when the nextcontraction twisted up her insides painfully.

“Are you the husband?” the doctor asked. Yangnodded. “You can stay then. There’s too many people in here,” sheaddressed Greenhill and Julian. “Please wait outside.”

The two shuffled out of the room, one morereluctantly than the other. While Greenhill stayed just outside thedoor, awaiting the birth of his grandchild with a calm eagerness,Julian headed to the  lounge. He bought himself an ice tea from avending machine and sat in a plastic chair. As he slowly drank, hewatched the news channel on TV set up in the area. The leader of adangerous radical organization Patriotic Knights Corps was arrested.A new legislation was passed to decrease the fleet’s size along withother reforms of the military. Heinessen Patriots had won theirflyball match yesterday.

Julian’s attention was taken off the news when aslim redhead in tiny jeans shorts walked up to the vending machine.He was furtively admiring her long legs when she suddenly kicked theautomat.

“Dammit!” she cursed and kicked it again.

Julian stood up and came closer. “What’s thematter?”

She gave him a distrustful glare and he couldn’thelp but notice that she had pretty blue eyes. “Nothing.” Thenshe kicked the machine again. “This piece of shit just doesn’t wantto give me my skittles!”

“You could call the support,” Julian suggested,pointing to the phone number glued to the side of the vendingmachine.

“And wait how long? Are you nuts?” she said.

Julian evaluated the situation. The girl’s kickswere too weak to rock the automat enough so that the bag of skittleswould fall down on their own. He took place next to her.

“Wait, if we kick together, it should work.”

She gave him a skeptical look. “Alright,” shesaid, a little doubtful, but willing to try this.

“On three! Two! One! Now!” Julian counted downand they kicked out together. The vending machine swayed backwards.“Again!” After the second double kick, the skittles were releasedand clattered into the pocket on the bottom of the automat.

“Yes!” the girl exclaimed and scooped hercandies out. She turned to Julian. “Thanks for your help. I’mKaterose.”

“Julian,” he gave his name too. “And it was noproblem.”

Katerose opened the bag and held it out to him.“Want some?”

“Me?” he asked in surprise. “No, thanks.”

She shrugged and popped a few skittles in her mouth.“So, who are you visiting here?” she asked.

Julian blinked, as he didn’t expect she’d stickaround to continue the conversation instead of being on her way. “Afriend’s wife is giving birth and I’m here for moral support. Andyou?”

“My stupid dad busted his arm playing flyball. I’mtaking him home after they finish patching him up,” she saidwithout much concern.

Julian was taken aback by her flippant attitude. Hewanted to ask why she’d talk like that about her own father, but itfelt too early in their acquaintance for such personal questions.Instead, he latched onto the sports part. “He plays flyball?Professional or just for fun?”

“Hmm, that’s actually hard to define…”Katerose replied, only rousing his curiosity. She ate some moreskittles. “I guess it’s both. He’s a professional, but he’s not aplayer. He’s just a coach for the team.”

“A coach? Wait, then how did he break his arm?”

“He was showing his team some move or the otherand screwed up. He’s a total show-off, so he got what he deserved,”she concluded and closed the candy bag.

“Aren’t you a little too harsh?” Julian pointedout. He loved and respected his own father a lot, so someone beingthis rude about their dad grated on his nerves.

Katerose snorted. “No-pe. If you met him, youwould agree with me. Anyway, I gotta go. It was nice talking to you,Julian.” She walked off, giving him a lazy wave over her shoulder.

“Bye,” Julian uttered, waving backautomatically. Despite her attitude, he found her interesting to talkto. Then he realized that he didn’t even get her number or a fullname and with no way to track her, they probably wouldn’t see eachother ever again.

Julian groaned and cradled his head in a palm, thenreturned to wait outside room 320 with General Greenhill.

Meanwhile, Yang also had girl problems of anentirely different kind. Frederica was giving birth and he had tokeep his wits around him, even though on the inside he was freakingout. He occupied himself by wiping her brow and enduring her deathlygrip that had made his hand go numb some time ago.

The doctor was kneeling in front of Frederica.“Push!” she instructed.

His wife screamed and pushed, becoming red in theface from the effort.

“Again!” the doctor ordered.

“I can’t! It hurts too much!” Frederica criedout, sobbing.

“It’ll stop hurting after you push that kid out!”the doctor replied sternly.

“Frederica,” Yang said softly and touched herhot, damp cheek. “Don’t give up, you can do this. I believe in you.You’re so strong. Just a little more,” he encouraged her.

Frederica gave him a trembling little smile and anod, then started pushing with a renewed determination.

When Yang heard the baby’s first cry and the doctorgave him the wrapped newborn, it was one of the happiest moments ofhis life.

“Congratulations, it’s a girl,” the doctor toldhim, correcting Yang’s hold.

The baby was so small and fragile in his arms thathe was afraid he’d do something wrong, but also it awakened in himthe urge to protect her. This was his daughter and he already wantedto give her the stars. “Hello, little one,” he murmured tenderly.

“Hey, let me see her,” Frederica asked, slumpedon the birthing chair. Her expression lit up with love when he gaveher the child. “She’s so beautiful…” Frederica whispered inawe, happy tears glistening in her eyes. Yang discreetly wiped hisown, caused only by the overwhelming happiness of this moment.

“Did you come up with a name?” the doctor askedthem. Yang and Frederica exchanged an unsure look.

“You should name her. You went through so much soshe could be born,” Yang suggested to his wife.

“Actually, I had this idea for a while… What doyou think about Victoria?” she asked.

“It’s a great name.” Yang gently brushed thesoft head of his baby daughter with one finger. “Victoria Yang,”he said, trying out the name. “It sounds good.”

“Our little Victoria,” Frederica said and kissedthe baby on top of her head.

It was a fitting name. After all, her parentsthought she was the greatest achievement of their lives. And in thisworld where the peace and good triumphed, where they never had tofight in bloody battles for freedom, that was more than enough.

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AN: Thanks for reading! Let me know how you liked it :)

[xhxhxhx]

The England of the East

On the morning of May 27, 1905, a small Japanese fleet met the Russian Baltic Fleet as it steamed into the Straits of Tsushima. Seven months earlier, the tsar had ordered the fleet to leave its base at Kronstadt. Now, halfway around the world, it was exhausted, demoralized, and in desperate need of supplies. The Russians made a last, desperate dash for Vladivostok. They never made it. By the following morning, the Japanese had destroyed six Russian battleships and captured the other two, and they had not lost a single ship. Five thousand Russian sailors were taken prisoner. 

At the peace conference at Portsmouth, the Japanese won the Liaotung Peninsula, the South Manchurian Railroad Company’s rights in Manchuria, South Sakhalin, and recognition for Japan’s paramount interests in Korea. No longer would Russia trouble the Japanese in Korea. That November, the Korean Empire became a Japanese protectorate.

The Russo-Japanese War was a psychological shock for the colonized peoples of the world. Lord Curzon, the British Viceroy in India, observed that the reverberations of Japanese victory had “gone like a thunderclap through the whispering galleries of the East.” Sun Yat-sen, traveling down the Suez Canal during the war, was asked whether he was Japanese; the Arab had observed vast armies of Russian soldiers being shipped back fo Russia from the Far East, which seemed a sure sign of Russia’s defeat. “The joy of this Arab,” wrote Sun, “as a member of the great Asiatic race, seemed to know no bounds.”

In South Africa, a young lawyer named Mohandas Gandhi wrote that “so far and wide have the roots of Japanese victory spread that we cannot now visualize all the fruit it will put forth.” A Hunanese schoolboy named Mao Zedong memorized a Japanese song taught by his music teacher, a former student in Japan:

The sparrow sings, the nightingale dances,
 And the green fields are lovely in the spring.
 The pomegranate flowers crimson, the willows green-leafed,
 And there is a new picture.

Jawaharlal Nehru, reading the news in provincial India, found it stirred up his enthusiasm. “I waited eagerly for the papers for fresh news daily,” although he found Japanese history rather hard to follow and preferred “the knightly tales of old Japan and the pleasant prose of Lafcadio Hearn.” He began dreaming of Indian freedom, and his own role in freeing Asia from European domination. “I dreamt of brave deeds, of how, sword in hand, I would fight for India and help in freeing her.”

Of course, by the time Nehru heard the news from Tsushima, he was with his mother and sister on the train from Dover to Harrow. It happened to be just before Derby Day, and he and his family went to see the race. Still, the news put him in “high good humour.” Lord Curzon’s dyspepsia notwithstanding, the young Nehru would not be alone in his enthusiasm, whether at Harrow or at Epsom Downs.

Pankaj Mishra describes the Battle of Tsushima as the first act in The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia. “For the first time since the Middle Ages, a non-European country had vanquished a European power in a major war,” he wrote, and now Japan threatened Europe in a way that no colonized people ever had. It was not an uncommon sentiment at the time. As the Illustrated London News put it, “Europe has not recovered from the shock of finding out that the Japanese are a great people.”

The irony is that whatever succor their Chinese or Indian subjects might have felt, the English were as happy with the Japanese victory as any colonized people. “Every Englishman will join in the joy which is felt in the land of his allies,” wrote the North China Herald, the paper of British merchants in the Shanghai concession. In London, it was the greatest victory since the Battle of Trafalgar. “In the hundred years gone by since Nelson decided the destinies of Europe,” wrote The Times, “no such action has been fought at sea as that which begun on Saturday in the Straits of Tsushima, and no such victory has been won.”

Japan had been Britain’s treaty ally since 1902, whereas Russia threatened Britain’s interests in South Asia and the Far East. Britain shared the general sentiment that Japan had raised Asia to the level of Europe, but this was no bad thing: Henry Wilson, a pro-Japanese journalist, observed that “The era of inequality between the races is over. Henceforth white and yellow man must meet on an equal footing.” The Times wrote that Japan had proven itself to European powers “judged by every standard of modern civilization,” and their victory confirmed the wisdom of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance:

We can conceive no surer way of averting the danger of racial antagonism, if it in reality exists, than an alliance between the two Island Empires of the West and the East based on a community of peaceful interests, on joint responsibilities of mutual defence, and on kindred ideals of patriotism, progress, and freedom.

Even before the war, the British had seen Japan as Britain’s mirror image, a plucky island nation bringing the light of liberalism to the benighted peoples of the Far East. The North China Herald had welcomed the alliance as the coming together of “the Englands of the West and the East,” and a guarantee of “peace and the open door for all.” The Times’ correspondent in Tokyo wrote that Japan was fighting as “the champion of ideals which Anglo-Saxons, all the world over, hold in reverence.” 

If Japan bloodied Russia’s nose in the process, that was all the better. Wilson wrote that “it cannot be denied by thinking men that [Japan], rather than Russia, represents civilized ideas, the freedom of human thought, democratic institutions, education and enlightenment – in a word, all that we understand by progress. It is Russia who stands for barbarism and reaction …” Britain hoped that Japan would protect liberal interests in the Far East, and accordingly British interests in the Pacific: ending Russia’s southward drive into China, and opening the door to foreign commerce in China outside European spheres of influence. Perhaps Japan would bring about the “Japanising of China,” and hence “the uplifting of this Empire by the spread of Western enlightenment and civilisation.”

As Lord Curzon’s observation makes clear, however, the settlers in the empire and its dominions were never so inclined to respect the Japanese. Although the British Columbia press praised the “inspired” patriotism and welcomed the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, some worried that the emergence of Japan as a world power would mean “the dominance of the yellow races in Asia” and a menace to Australia and the Pacific.

Two weeks before Tsushima, delegates from local labor organizations in San Francisco founded the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League, dedicating themselves to ending Asian immigration into California. The American Federation of Labor had already issued a resolution opposing all Asian immigration. In the British Empire, the “great white walls” the Dominions had raised against Chinese and Indian labor were now threatened by the Japanese. Lord Curzon wrote that “when challenged about the place of India in the Empire, [the Indian] replies that the Empire is nothing to him, since it cannot insure for the Indian his rights as a British subject in Australia, or British Columbia, or the Transvaal.” Curzon observed that this phase in colonial opinion was not likely to be either “fortuitous or transient,” but was likely, as time passed, “to stiffen into harder forms.” 

On October 11, 1906, the day after the ratification of the Treaty of Portsmouth in Tokyo, the San Francisco school board decreed that ethnic Japanese students were to be forced into a segregated school, so that white children “should not be placed in any position where their youthful impressions may be affected by association with pupils of the Mongoloid race.” The New York Sun’s correspondent in Tokyo told his editors that “the exclusion of Japanese children from the public schools of California cuts this child-loving nation to the quick.” In Japan, some broadsheets urged the Japanese navy to make a detour to California to rescue the Japanese of San Francisco: “It will be easy work to awaken the United States from her dream of obstinacy when one of our great Admirals appears suddenly on the other side of the Pacific.”

President Roosevelt was disgusted by the San Francisco segregation order. He sent a cabinet member to San Francisco to persuade the school board to reverse itself. They ignored the message, and sent back the messenger.  In his annual message to Congress, Roosevelt condemned the segregation order as a “wicked absurdity” enacted by a “small body of wrongdoers.” The Japanese had “won in a single generation the right to stand abreast of the foremost and most enlightened peoples of Europe and America; they have won on their own merits and by their own exertions the right to treatment on a basis of full and frank equality.” After months of pleading, Roosevelt persuaded San Francisco to reverse its segregation order, but only in exchange for concrete steps to end Japanese immigration. Roosevelt signed an immediate executive order barring Japanese aliens in Hawaii from migrating to the mainland.

In 1907, the Asiatic Exclusion League sponsored a mass demonstration in Vancouver that ended in a race riot. In the aftermath, the federal opposition leader Robert Borden joined local leaders in defending the rioters, as British Columbia was and must remain “a White Man’s province.” In 1907 and 1908, Canada, Australia, and the United States all came to “Gentlemen’s Agreements” with Japan, barring almost all further immigration. Although Japanese subjects had the right of free entry into Canada under the Anglo-Japanese Treaty, Japan agreed to use administrative measures to limit further immigration to Canada. They would refuse passports to all manual laborers requesting permission to travel to the United States. The rising tide of Asian migration was stopped, and “full and frank equality” postponed.

The Anglo-Japanese Alliance eventually withered away, but not before one final victory. On August 15, 1914, the Japanese demanded that the Germans relinquish their base in Tsingtao, “the root of the German influence which forms a constant menace to the peace of the Far East.” Germany was no more inclined to respect Japan’s demand than Russia had been: “They can tell this to a Russian but not to a German,” one German in Tsingtao wrote in his diary. Wilhelm II said that “it would shame me more to surrender Tsingtao to the Japanese than Berlin to the Russians.” Although the Kaiser would not live to see the surrender of Berlin, Germany would ultimately have to do both.  

On November 7, the German garrison asked the Allies for terms. Only the German and Japanese chiefs of staff and a Japanese naval officer signed the terms of surrender; the British were neither consulted nor asked to put their name to the document. A week after the surrender, a representative of the emperor handed the British troops at Tsingtao a parchment expressing the emperor’s pleasure at their participation in the battle, along with a consignment of cigarettes bearing the emperor’s chrysanthemum crest. The British got the cigarettes and the Japanese got the peninsula.

During the Russo-Japanese War itself, however, one young German believed that Japan was the country’s natural ally. “For national reasons, I had already taken sides, and in our little discussions at once sided with the Japanese,” he wrote, two decades later, from his cell in Landsberg Prison. “In a defeat of the Russians,” wrote Adolf Hitler, “I saw the defeat of Austrian Slavdom.” 

This topic was suggested by a Patreon backer.

Bibliography: Marius B. Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan (Cambirdge, MA: Belknap Press, 2000); Pankaj Mishra, From the Ruins of Empire (London: Allen Lane, 2012); Rotem Kowner, ed., The Impact of the Russo-Japanese War (London: Routledge, 2007); Jawaharlal Nehru, An Autobiography (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1982); Cornelis Heere, “Japan and the British World, 1904--14,” unpublished PhD thesis, London School of Economics, 2016; Lord Curzon, The Place of India in the Empire (London: John Murray, 1909); Patricia E. Roy, A White Man’s Province (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1989); Greg Robinson, A Tragedy of Democracy (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009); Ian W. Toll, Pacific Crucible (New York: W. W. Norton, 2012); Charles E. Neu, An Uncertain Friendship (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967); Jonathan Fenby, The Siege of Tsingtao (London: Penguin Books, 2014).

[marumafan]

Julia’s death, the war, and two more theories

Welcome! Welcome!

I've been looking into the war and Julia dying and there's again a plothole (that I've been able to fill with some headcanon). I also added two more theories at the end.

First, let's make a map with the information regarding Shimaron's invasion.

Novel 7, chapter8

“At the time, the Shimaron army had landed in the southwest of the continent and was quickly advancing north by conquering two small, powerless countries.  After one more city, if Arnold fell, the Shimaron army would have easily broken through our borders and a decisive battle would have inevitably been fought inside the country.  However, our main forces were scattered in the Grantz territory in the north and in the Karbelnikoff territory on the coast.  Even if soldiers were spared for Arnold it would have still been a defensive battle and we would have been short-handed in both areas.  In any case, the military strengths weren’t the same.  Shimaron had taken over most of their own continent so their number of soldiers was unimaginably higher.  On the other hand, we had no alliances with other countries.  We had no plan so we thought it would be best to abandon Arnold and meet the enemy within the country.”

(..fighting and winning in Arnold...)

Using this opportunity, The Great Demon Kingdom made a comeback and the tides turned in the Grantz and Karbelnikoff territories.  We didn’t pursue the enemy into their territory, but in naval battles the Dugald family and Roberski’s fleet of unsinkable battleships used their power to corner the Shimaron forces.  The reason we eventually reached a ceasefire was because we won at Arnold.  We believe that.  

----------------------------------------- Now let’s see where Julia died:

According to novel 17, chapter 1: (Anissina) That man took her friend’s life. No, although he wasn’t the direct cause, it was still his unreasonable suggestion that forced so many people in Ruttenberg to the frontlines. To save those children who were left behind, even Julia, who was part of the support troops, went to the border… Although Gisela never said any more about it, Julia probably went even further than that.

So: She died near Ruttenberg. ------------------------

According to Novel 6, Chapter 2: "It wasn't an accident. It hasn't been made publicly known, but precisely speaking, it might not be able to be called a death on the battlefield. She wasn't directly cut with a sword nor was she shot with an arrow. In fact, not a single external, fatal injury was on her body."

"Only a few people know about this, but surely Your Excellency has the right to the knowledge. She chose death herself... no, that's not a good way to say it... but she surely knew. She knew what happened to those who used powerful majutsu in human lands where there are few elements that obey mazoku. She knew what would happen if she used maryoku that went beyond her abilities with an injured and weakened body and soul. She knew, yet she did what she had to do. She unhesitatingly threw her life away to stop the enemy forces and save countless towns a villages. And the result was... unfortunately just as predicted. But I made a promise to her at that time."

So Julia died in human land, near Ruttenberg.

Now the problem is this: She was North of the 'decisive battle of Arnold', and way west of the Grantz territory that were fighting of the enemy (In fact, Wincott is closer to the enemy than Ruttenberg) So the question is: Who was she fighting?

All right, so either the map is wrong or the story is wrong OR, we don't have the whole story. 

The rest is headcanon, with canon to back it up:

The problem here is Stuffel and Ruttenberg: Stuffel (in Lost Flower, Gaiden 3)

"Stuffel von Spitzweg is quite determined to keep his power. He belongs to a warmongering political party, and is very supportive of expanding the country's territory. This has caused him to quickly invade the human countries surrounding Shin Makoku and expand Shin Makoku's territorial waters. Moreover, he used military force to suppress the smaller countries, taking the opportunity to declare war."

He was suppressing neighboring countries, conquering land, etc. So let's just say that the neighbors were not too happy with Shinma.

And then there's Ruttenberg (novel 7, chapter 8):

"  That’s right, The Young Lion of Luttenberg.  His father took up residence there after all.  Or perhaps I should say the area was a region where a lot of humans lived near the western border of The Great Demon Kingdom.  It’s the name of that place. " (...) " According to rumor, he had graciously entered into a loving relationship with the king of the demons and had been given a part of her land. "

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Looking at the map, Ruttenberg couldn't have been part of the Spitzberg territory, so it must have been territory under the control of the maou (but on the boarder). There were a lot of humans living nearby. So we could say this could have easily been territory taken from the humans at some point.

With Shimaron attacking Shinma on SW, NE and SE... could an angry neighbor try to take back some lands? Or simply attack because they were angry at Stuffel? In any case, Julia couldn't have died against Shimaron (not with the info we have, not with this map). The place where she was was the furthest from any Shimaron enemy troops.

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What triggered all of this? Wolfie, of course.

Another headcanon ahead

You see, I think that Julia was asked to kill herself (and that maybe Shinou threw in a nice threat like I'll kill your loved one and family if you don't) and she went there to commit suicide (Gisela says that it pretty much was that)... She didn't tell anyone anything, she went and killed herself.

And now, there's Wolfie. Shinou has already threatened Yuuri and his family if he says anything about the box. Also Murata has said that the keys could be trained to use the boxes (and be successful if they're strong enough). Of course, using the boxes is almost as dangerous as trying to kill yourself, but I think Shinou is using the same 'I'll kill everyone you love' strategy with Wolf as he did with Julia.

Bonus theory(once more):

I've said before that I think Yuuri has Wincott blood and that's from Miko, right?

But now we have more info from the prison arc.

Ranatan She's the cult leader and wants to 'merge' with the box. She also happens to look exactly like Miko.  (Novel 17, chapter 10)

“I can’t hand it to anyone, ‘kay. That Box is only fit to stay in Darco, I’ll accept it and help it change itself, ‘kay.” What are you talking about, idiot. I mean, Ranatan. Did you forget how badly you were tricked by that Box? (...) Her mind was slowly corrupted, and the sense of responsibility she had towards anything sinful, lost out to her own desire for the Box. " In the end, she even considered merging with the Box into a single entity. If she’d gone on like that, it really would have led to mutual destruction."

BUT WAIT! People can't merge with boxes!!! Dacascos was inside one for a while and nothing happened.... How was Ranatan going to merge with the water box.... unless.... unless!!! She was an imperfect key! DUN DUN DUN! ( Also... can you destroy a box by merging someone with it!?  Talk about a quick fix )

Well, that's it for today with theories, hope you enjoyed!